A Maverick Manifesto for the 21st Century Photograher

film photography

After 180 years it has been decided that the medium of photography should be discontinued in favor of a return to painting, charcoal drawing and water ballet. Blah, blah, blah… April Fools!

This is how it is supposed to go, right? Unbelievable claim, some elaboration that pokes fun but sounds vaguely plausible, maybe, followed by the big reveal- psych! But the April Fools Day joke posted this morning on The Phoblographer is in my opinion another matter entirely. Not only have they posted an entire “April Fools” article, devoid of any winking humor, describing the end of Portra 800- but they have an affiliate link, that works, to buy the film on Amazon “while supplies last.”

This is, at best, misleading and in poor taste and, at worst, it is disingenuous clickbait. The disclaimer that it is an “April Fools day joke” is at the very end and buried under an ad- most people will miss it:

How is this funny? It’s worth noting that I don’t read The Phoblographer, but found out about the post when it was shared on Facebook by a concerned photographer, who like so many will read the first few sentences and share. Remember: this post and its untrue title will be indexed by search engines, spreading this “fake photo news” indefinitely. This kind of information, even when intended as a “joke,” does not go away, ever. In 6 months when someone comes across that article… are they going to be thinking “ah- April Fools!”? No. And that kind of pointless misinformation hurts our industry. For folks who post this kind of garbage- irresponsible is the only word I can come up with.